teaching

Well, as you have probably guessed from my lack of posting anything, Tuesday's teaching didn't go so well. I kind of got thrown into a class that has problems already. It was pretty much a nightmare. But it is over, and I don't have to teach that class again. This weekend I have two classes on Saturday (a 4 hour Sat morn class and a 3 hours Sat night class... ugh, split shift), so hopefully the way that those two classes go will make up for my first awful experience and won't leave me feeling like running in any direction other than a classroom (as I kind of want to do now).

Yesterday, to kind of try to put the crappy teaching out my mind we actually went and walked around the Sultanahmet area. It was hot and the tourists annoyed us, but it was pretty enough. We were exhausted and ready to come home after quite a short time. The flowers were gorgeous...
Somebody was having wedding pictures done there... weird. (or maybe it was for a bridal magazine or something because all I saw was them and the photographers.. nobody else who looked like the were actually going to a wedding)

Leyla tried the Kumpir (baked potato with everything but the kitchen sink) and she ate it all, God bless her!

teaching.

I start teaching tomorrow night. I'm super scared... :/

a few more pics...

Today we went to Starbucks and Leyla got a Turkish Coffee and I got a mango/passion fruit frappuccino. mmmm.... A cute dinosaur slide we saw when we were exploring more of Bakirköy.
Leyla took some pictures of her finished room! :)


Leyla going psycho on the curtains! hahaha.. we hated them... they had to go! They draped down onto our clean dishes... ick.

Depressing fact of the day: I bought a VCD of Donnie Darko today because I haven't seen that movie in forever, only to get it home and pop it in and find out that it is dubbed in Turkish! Errr....

Our bathroom was fixed today, which makes me very happy. Today, the girls from the office tried to tell us we were teaching classes today. We tried to tell them as nicely as we could that no, our agreement was to start teaching in September but that we agreed to take over Charlot's morning classes Monday through Thursday. It was not a fun time. I felt as through I were in the principal's office at school and in trouble. haha. We got out of teaching this weekend, but I'm sure they will find a way to dump some extra classes on us next week... Such is life.

I got my eyebrows done the other day, and it kind of reminded me of the feeling of getting a tattoo. They are hard-core with their hair removal. They use this awesome string stuff, and I swear she tried removing hair from my entire forehead! ha. But, it looks really good. I'm sure that most of you feel that that was t.m.i. - well, too bad.

Istanbul Map

Here is a map of Istanbul so you can kind of get a feel for where I live and the other places I talk about. On the bottom left-ish you'll see Bakirköy (where I live) and then on the asian side you'll find Kadiköy where we keep taking the ferry to, and where we took the bosphorus ferry from. Also Taksim (if you zoom in, it's by beyoğlu [the ğ is silent, it lengthens the vowel before it]) is where we go to church. Also if you look way the heck out there on the Asian side you'll see Ümraniye, where we went to Ikea.

Now that we have hot water, everything else in the bathroom decided to die at once. Last night Leyla pulled up the flusher (it's in the middle of the top of the toilet) and it disconnected from inside and so now our toilet doesn't flush. Now, I've re-connected things in toilets at home, so I opened it up. The string that connects to the thing that opens the drain in the toilet has a twisty-tie on it... but the string has to be through the ceramic top while you connected it... I'm lost. Then, I got up this morning and washed my hands and water started leaking from the back of the sink... hahaha! We also still have not mastered the art of our washing machine... Such is life.

Cell Phone

This evening we hung out with Stephanie, and we went to the salon to get pedicures. However, the lady took so long on Leyla and Stephanie (and we hadn't yet eaten dinner) that I decided I'll just go later. :(
One of the previous teachers had had a cellphone and it was at another of the teacher's apartment, and so he brought it for us to use because we are broke and do not want to buy a phone here. So, we will try to get the girl's password for her sim card so that we will not have to buy one of those either. Even if we have to I think it's something like 20 lira. So, we'll just be able to buy contours as we go. It will be free for us to receive calls once we get our phone, so if anybody wants our number we can give it to you as soon as we have it all squared away.
I don't really have much else to say, except that I'm getting really nervous to start teaching next week filling in for Charlotte.... ahh...

Bosphorus Ferry

Today was such a full day! We started the day by waking up at 7:30am (which is really early considering what time it is that we get to bed) and left at 8:50am to go observe a class (well, 3 50min sections of a class). It was nice, there were only 3 students there. Then, we came home and changed into more informal (and cooler) clothes before heading off to the ferry to kadiköy. We got to Kadiköy and had Turkçe Kahvesi (Turkish coffee) while waiting for our friend Charlotte that we met at Dutch Chapel (not to be confused with UK Charlotte who is a teacher here). We went and got some lunch at a great restaurant where I had some amazing soup and then headed for the ferry for the Bosphorus tour (which was only 6 lira each!) which was gorgeous and well worth it. I took waaayyy too many pictures (about 150!). Then we stayed in Kadiköy and ate at another great restaurant where I had the most amazing Adana Kebap I've had since we've been here. Oh boy was it good! It was spicy enough to burn my lips right off. Yum. It's so great once you've been in a place long enough to have "your" guys. You know what I mean, we have our "çay guy," our "dondurma(ice cream) guy," our "döner guys." We like to find the places we like best for a specific thing and stick with that place. It's all about loyalty.
*oops, sorry the pics are cut off a bit on the right...*














apparently this is the stadium for our soccor team, Beşiktaş....






some fancy schmancy hotel...












Cafe's and fishermen by the sea...


People just jumping right in!




More people jumping in.


Stupid shoe came untied!









The super rich houses...


The super cute house and tree that I loved!


little boat.... big boat...




notice the super cute old man in front of the shed-ish thing


Looks like Asia (left) is touching Europe (right)

Hilarious commercial...

If you haven't been to Turkey, you won't understand some of the funny-ness... but still hilarious!

byebye t.v.

The call to prayer just went off (or should I say calls), and it makes us sad that we can't hear it very well in our apt. If we went on our balcony it would be a little louder. I love hearing it because it's kind of a reminder of where you are, that you're in a country not your own and you can take a minute to thank God that He is allowing you to be here.

Stephanie (a teacher who lived upstairs and just moved today) came to take her T.V. today. :( We are mourning the loss of all of the music videos we have become accustomed to watching... They say we will be getting a new one. Who knows.

I've got my room pretty settled, and bought a rug at the grocery store yesterday. It matches quite well.

Here's view from sitting at the cafe at the school.. you can see our apt, our balcony is the one with the big flag, my bedroom window is to the left of it and hidden by the trees.
It's supposed to be 97 degrees today... and on Sunday 100... Come September and October, I welcome you with open arms!!!